DAI Turns Out 400 Votes in District 6 Runoff Election
Former Mayor Pro Tem Monica Alonzo, who waited until the day before the election to support Dallas Area Interfaith's agenda in support of affordable housing and early childhood education, lost the runoff by 291 votes - the largest margin of all runoff races held that day.
Her challenger, Omar Narvaez, publicly supported the DAI agenda two months prior.
Both candidates had been invited to support the DAI agenda at a nonpartisan accountability assembly of 350 District 6 resident leaders held in April. At that assembly, leaders committed to informing neighbors and fellow parishioners of how candidates had responded to their agenda.
True to their word, DAI leaders organized block walks in the Bachman Lake area near San Juan Diego where voter turnout was highest in this election!
[In photo, Fr. Jesus Belmontes, pastor of San Juan Diego Catholic Church, talks about the DAI agenda at the nonpartisan accountability assembly held last April.]
Shakeup to Shift Council Dynamics, Dallas Morning News
DAI Grills D6 Candidates on Issues Days Before Election
In District 6, where only 800 votes were cast in the previous election, DAI leaders organized a nonpartisan accountability assembly in which 300 local residents grilled city council candidates on issues they have been working over the last year, including affordable housing, early education, an upcoming city bond and improvements to the 311 system.
The assembly was the largest attended forum in District 6, in the heart of Bachman Lake where last year's housing code work started, and where large-scale evictions occurred only 48 hours after their groundbreaking rewrite of the city's rental housing code. Leaders not only demanded long-term housing solutions in West Dallas, parents of children attending Lumin Education are fighting for a zoning change to preserve a Montessori school in this impoverished region.
Charter or Dallas ISD: Dispute Over School's Expansion Divides West Dallas Neighborhood, Dallas Morning News
West Dallas Council Candidates Turn Affordable Housing Crisis into Weapon Against the Incumbent, Dallas Morning News
